Photo by Transportation For America.

Tomorrow, the DC Council Committee on Public Works and Transportation will vote on a bill to require installing sidewalks on at least one side of any street reconstruction.

In many parts of DC, streets lack sidewalks. In many cases, these are the same areas with low rates of car ownership, large numbers of children walking to school, and large percentages of senior citizens.

DDOT had a policy to add a sidewalk on at least one side of any street if it was reconstructing or redoing the curbs and gutters on a street that had none. However, last year, Mayor Fenty intervened in some high-profile cases where neighborhoods were divided over sidewalks and some of his supporters or donors didn’t want the sidewalks.

Some have called for provisions that let a majority of residents of a block veto sidewalks. However, this could lead to patchworks of missing sidewalks, or cases where residents on one block want to traverse another to get to school, a park, a bus stop or Metro station, but have to walk along streets where cars zip through at high speeds.

After months of discussion and negotiation, the Committee has created a bill which DDOT is able to support, and which addresses many of the concerns Councilmember Muriel Bowser raised on behalf of some of her constituents. The bill now requires DDOT to give notice of sidewalk plans, including opportunities for residents to comment, demands preserving trees as much as possible, and provides for certain fixed exemptions.

The exemptions allow DDOT to skip a sidewalk when the cost would be too high, a sidewalk would get no use, or the DDOT Director certifies in writing that the road with no sidewalk is just as safe to children, people with disabilities, and other pedestrians as it would be with a sidewalk. In those cases, they must issue a written report to that effect, ensuring that such decisions are out in the open as opposed to backroom political maneuvers.

Councilmember Kwame Brown (at-large) represents a key vote on the Committee for the bill, and has not yet taken a firm position. Call his office at (202) 724-8174 or email kbrown@dccouncil.us and ask him to support the bill. All streets should be safe for pedestrians, not just some streets.